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Gluten and Its
Association With Illness
Vitamin D Importance
In Prevention and Treatment of Illness
Allergies & Sensitivities: LDA (Ultra Low
Dose Enzyme Activated Immunotherapy)
Post Traumatic Environmental Stress Disorder
Peace of Mind: Holistic
Approaches to Anxiety and ADD
Bipolar Disorder Can Be Treated With
Medication and Naturally
ALLERGY REDUCTION:
Improving Mood and Energy
Hidden Factors Behind Your Persistent Illness
Adult ADD:
To Medicate or Go Natural
Cancer
– Finding Your Best
Advisor
Overweight - The Risk and the Remedy
Loss of Sexual Interest
Approaches in Helping Bipolar Sufferers
Help for Panic and Anxiety Sufferer
Seasonal Affective Disorder: The Winter Blues
Depression Relief Speeds Health Recovery
Amino Acids & Other Considerations in Depression
Evaluation
Integrative Medicine & Psychiatry
Blood Pressure -
A Wake up Call
Addictions - Breaking the Cycle
Suboxone: For Opiate Dependence
(for Western North Carolina Residents Only)
Spirituality:
The Core of Healing in Integrative Psychiatry
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Peace
of Mind:
Holistic Approaches to Anxiety and ADD
By Ronald R. Parks, MD
Peace
of mind and personal happiness may elude sufferers who deal with
significant anxiety or disturbances of concentration and focus. You
may find that you are one of the many who find these issues
replacing life plans, career, and social and personal needs with
pain and fear. Then you watch a TV commercial, hear a radio
advertisement, or read ads offering products, pills, and all types
of remedies promising you freedom from this pain and suffering.
Amidst all this, how do you sensibly choose the best way to get help
or relief?
Unlike the brief and mild anxiety caused by a stressful event,
anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect
approximately nineteen million American adults. These disorders
cause overwhelming, even debilitating, anxiety and fear that can
become worse if not treated. Common signs and symptoms of anxiety
include muscle tension, trembling, fast heartbeat, fast or troubled
breathing, dizziness or impaired concentration, palpitations,
sweating, fatigue, irritability, and sleep disturbances.
In addition, panic disorder—a type of severe anxiety—affects about
2.4 million adult Americans, and is twice as common in women than in
men. Symptoms of a panic attack include feelings of terror that
strike suddenly and repeatedly without warning; a pounding heart;
sweaty, weak, faint or dizzy feeling; sense of unreality; chest
pain; fear of impending doom, of going crazy, of losing control; and
avoidance of going certain places. An attack usually peaks within
ten minutes. This may be associated with other conditions like
allergies, depression, or drug, alcohol, or caffeine abuse.
Medications, such as antidepressants and some tranquilizers, may be
helpful and can sometimes bring more immediate relief for sufferers
of anxiety. However, their long-term use is controversial and
withdrawal from them can be difficult. Even though the consideration
of medications is necessary when there are very severe or resistant
symptoms, many people with severe anxiety or panic attacks will have
excellent results with a holistic approach. Also these medications
may not have the same lasting effect as the use of natural
alternatives and the addressing of identifiable factors. In order
for anxiety treatments to fully work, any related problems or issues
such as substance abuse or depression would need to be addressed and
treated.
An important first step in a holistic approach would be specific
behavioral cognitive treatments: the retraining and reconditioning
of an individual for relieving one’s anxiety. Here is what is
included in these treatments: 1) intensive education about the
disorder and of the body’s physiological reaction to stress and
threat; 2) desensitization to the various physical sensations or
triggers of panic through exposing a person to the actual object,
situation, or thought; 3) learning relaxation, breathing, and stress
management techniques; 4) restructuring dysfunctional thoughts and
patterns. Other beneficial strategies may include the study and
practice of yoga, qi gong, meditation, or other mind body
approaches. Massage, acupuncture, and nutritional and herbal
medicine are also important considerations.
Correcting deficiencies of amino acids (the smallest units of
protein and the precursors of brain neurotransmitters) alone, or in
combination with the correction of other identified contributing
factors—or sometimes in conjunction with medication—can be of great
value in relieving anxiety. If a person has increased anxiety,
panic, sleep difficulties, or excessive stimulation, these are signs
of catecholamine excess and GABA insufficiency. (Catecholamines and
GABA are brain chemical regulators.) GABA enhancers like taurine,
glutamine, and GABA itself, along with necessary vitamin and mineral
co-factors, can be used to help these problems.
ADD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),
is the most common diagnosed behavioral disorder of childhood,
occurring in between three to five percent of school-aged children.
Symptoms often appear before the age of seven. Adults may not
realize their own symptoms of ADD until their forties; these
individuals are only considered to have a disorder when the above
symptoms cause significant impairment or disability over time.
Conventional treatments for ADD would be with psycho-stimulants such
as Ritalin®, Concerta®, or Adderall®, or the use of antidepressants
such as Wellbutrin®. Other contributing medical, emotional, or
behavioral conditions would also need to be identified and treated.
A National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) study indicated that a
comprehensive treatment regimen—combining medication with intensive
behavioral interventions with elementary school children and
parents—was the most effective treatment for ADD. I contend,
however, that future studies will show that more holistic approaches
will have the greatest benefit.
Some promising complementary approaches are school remediation;
social skills training; recognizing and treating allergies;
improving nutrition by avoiding additives, chemicals and refined
sugars; ADD coaching; behavioral cognitive therapies; individual and
family education; EEG Biofeedback; homeopathy; and other mind/body
techniques. ADD symptoms can be a sign of deficient brain chemical
regulators such as catecholamines or serotonin, especially if
associated with depression. Amino acids that enhance Catecholamines
are L-Tyrosine, DL or L-Phenylalanine; amino acids that enhance
Serotonin are 5-HTP or L-Tryptophan. Other important nutritional
co-factors to consider are vitamins as B6, minerals as zinc, iron,
and magnesium, Omega-3 fish oil, and other specific herbs.
Nutritional management and strategies with supplements remain
promising, though relatively few studies so far support their
effectiveness with ADD. Proper evaluation and monitored treatment by
a qualified health care practitioner is recommended. Holistic
approaches to anxiety, panic, and ADD may include a combination of
conventional medications, lifestyle modifications, alternative
treatments, targeted nutritional applications, life skills and
psychotherapeutic interventions, and enhancement of spiritual
practices. Through an integrative approach, individuals can gain
direction, move past the immobilization of misinformation and
erroneous beliefs, and find possible solutions for their adverse
health conditions.
Recovery starts with the decision to seek help, treatment and a more
life-affirming path. At the beginning, consider your needs and
personal capacity to break out of any downward spiral, which may be
driven by biological illness or developmental impairments,
dysfunctional patterns of behavior, rigid beliefs, or lack of social
support. Change requires willingness for self-examination without
blaming or taking the victim’s role, a commitment to positive action
and to the beneficial treatments that are available. The real remedy
comes in gaining awareness, opening up to new knowledge, becoming a
more discerning consumer of health information and care, and
developing the motivation to take effective action for necessary
changes.
Try these techniques to calm down.
Stop all stimulants like
caffeine or loud music • Notice and let go of fear-based thoughts
and worries from the past or concerns for the future • Change your
physical space: move to a quiet room or just adjust your posture to
a more comfortable position or find a more cozy place to sit or lie
down• Turn on some soft, pleasurable music • Beware of your breath:
see if you can relax it into an even flow of in breaths and out
breaths • Center yourself: think of your whole being as being
enveloped in a loving smile • Imagine a favorite place or moment
that reminds you of peacefulness, warmth, and total acceptance;
allow yourself to totally accept this place and yourself in the
timeless now moment
Meditate: Focus on the quietness and peacefulness of your
breathing, carry yourself into deeper relaxation by releasing your
mind from any remaining fears or concerns or any feeling of mind or
physical tension. Keep a relaxed focus on any tension or thoughts
that come up and let them go, coming back to peacefulness of the
eternal now. After a few moments take a few deep breaths and slowly
open your eyes if closed, give a gentle stretch, and feel the
peacefulness and relaxation. Gently return to your daily tasks as a
renewed spirit.
Take a yoga or chi gong or meditation class, or have a regular
routine of exercise that you do • Go outside and embrace nature • Do
something caring or helpful for someone else • Drink calming herbal
tea like chamomile • Take a herbal supplements for rest like
valerian root or passionflower or amino acids like Taurine, L-Theonine,
or GABA • Add magnesium and calcium to your supplement regime • Take
a warm bath or sauna • Get or give a massage • Call a supportive or
nurturing friend • Go out and do some volunteer work or work in the
garden • Stroke a loving pet • Read a spiritual or inspiring book or
poem • Eat some healthy organic vegetables or fruit. Take care of
yourself!
Ronald R. Parks, MD, MPH practices
Integrative Medicine and Psychiatry in Asheville, North Carolina. He
is specialty trained in Psychiatry, Internal, Family, and Preventive
Medicine, with a background in nutrition and other natural healing
arts. For information on the web: macrohealthmedicine.com or call
828-225-1812.
References/Resources:
Anxiety disorders Assoc. of America: 301-232-9350 or
www.adaa.org
Books
1. Michelle Craske and David Barlow, Mastery of Your Anxiety and
Panic, (Graywind Publications 1984, Distributed by PsychCorp)
2. Julia Ross, MA, Mood Cure (New York, Penguin Books, 2002)
3. Eric Braverman, MD, The Healing Nutrients Within (New Jersey,
Basic Health Publications, Inc. 2003)
4. Edmund J. Bourne, PhD, Beyond Anxiety & Phobia, (Oakland, CA, New
Harbinger Pub., Inc. 2001)
5. Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows
You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD (New York Penguin-Putnam Inc.
2002)
6. M. Hallowell & John J. Ratey, Delivered from Distraction: Getting
the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder (New York,
Random House 2005)
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